I find the entire concept of nerfing to be odd. So in this case everyone wants to be bio because it is giving a benefit that is so much better than the benefits gained by going with a different crafting skill. So why is the initial urge to nerf bio? Why aren't we talking about making the other crafting skills something that people also want to have? Wouldn't it be more beneficial if every craft skill had some device like this that balanced everything out? Maybe artificers have a crystal that is +50 but you have to be 400 art to use it, something similar with the other professions. Making it so that everyone wants to be a profession that benefits their play style seems a lot more appropriate than hey this one prof is awesome and all the other suck, so let's make it suck too.

We can't say for certain as BW has not commented on this (the exception being the magenta crystal as they said that one was not obtained through REing). That said, however, it does not appear to be the case as several people have made attempts at REing such items and no one has yet confirmed that they've obtained schematics in this fashion.

You don't nerf a skill solely on the basis that it hits hard. You nerf a skill because it hits TOO hard AND no one can defend it. If this move is easily defensible, then no nerf is needed. The high dam is the reward for being able to successfully pull it off.

This is a much better explanation than previously given. Not a bad change, I think it will make things a bit better once some of the newer 50s get a few pieces. Question is, has or when will 1.1.2 go live?

It's annoying, but I don't think it needs a nerf. Every time I see someone start to fire those up, I force leap on them then interrupt every time that blue bar starts to move. Voila, no tracer missiles.

What you have discovered is the incongruity of the bolster system and the expertise system. It makes no sense to me to put a bolster on a level 10 in an effort to level the playing field a bit with a 49 but then to throw a new 50 in with geared 50s, which, essentially is the same thing as throwing the 10 in with 49 without a bolster system.

in lvl 50 PVP I like the full tank build better. I've tried the dps/tank hybrid, and while it is entirely possible I wasn't playing it right, I always ended up with about half the damage as I would normally on the WZ scorecard at the end of a fight. Might be a play style or a heavily gear based thing, but I didn't do well in the hybrid build. The full Vig build works well too, but you lose guard and as a guardian, your score is going to be heavily dependent on your ability to protect.

I think what the original poster is getting at is the "not facing opponent" issue that runs rampant in melee combat that is not present in ranged combat. With my Commando, I can sit back and blast people. With my Knight, there are many occasions where I am pounding attack keys and nothing happens except the message "not facing opponent" when they are literally standing right in front of me but my character is a half degree turn off center from them. In PVE the game will correct for this and your char will turn slightly and execute your attack anyway. If I'm not mistaken, this is what the OP was asking about and why it isn't in PVP.

Why is everyone so hung up on the open world PVP statement? I merely mentioned that I liked it more than WZs because of the frustrating grindfest that WZs have become. I made some suggestions about how to change that...how to create the unique game experience that this was touted to be... Given the amount of whining and protesting going on in this forum it is quite clear that PVP isn't working properly. I want to talk about what will make it work right because I feel like the demand to nerf something to level the playing field is not the right move. I'd rather see multiple tracks to getting the desired result, in this case gear, so that everyone can enjoy the road to the end goal. You like huttball. Great! Keep doing that, you'll have fun and it will get you where you want to go. But if I happen to hate huttball (not saying I do, just sake of argument) why should I be forced to play it to get where I want to go? Shouldn't I be able to so something that I enjoy and get there too?

Now, this is an interesting idea. I forgot that SWG did that. Gear degraded over time till it was unusable any more. I'm not sure if that helps or hurts in the overall scheme of things. Thoughts anyone?

Here is a great example of flaming. This is not helpful in any way. Your suggestion that I do something boring, un-fun and/or frustrating in a game that I play to have fun is ridiculous and absurd and makes me think that you are 9 years old. I have a job that fits the description of boring, un-fun and frustrating and I don't want to do that for my entertainment. The Ilum discussion is interesting, but perhaps a different direction than I was hoping this talk would take. Ilum has all kinds of problems starting with that it is pointless (fight for control points for a 1 hour buff??) I was hoping for more thoughts on my suggestions that there be multiple paths to the goal of gearing up. Do people have other ideas or critiques of the possibilities I suggested. Does adding Merc comms back in unbalance the game in any way? What about crafters potentially being able to make expertise items? Finally, I return to Mr. 9 year old flamer above and pose a question so that you may take the opportunity to turn your flame into production. You posit that PVE gear should never compete with PVP gear...why? For clarification, I never suggested that they should necessarily, I just wondered out loud that in theory a PVE set should have similar stats to a PVP set and that would make for an interesting test of just how powerful (or not) the expertise stat really is. I see no reason why a person who prefers PVE but wants to PVP with their guild now and again should be forced to grind out a second set of gear just to participate with any effectiveness and vice-versa. Maybe there is one, or some, someone please enlighten me.

I wasn't saying that Ilum was some kind of save or god-send, rather that there should be a second option and that I personally preferred open world PVP to the WZs because of the imbalance. Were there less imbalance I'd probably have more fun in the WZs. My initial proposal is that there be multiple ways to get the gear needed. You say you disagree, so by all means I'd love to hear some sound reasoning behind that rather than just a plain. Nope.

Flamers, you are not welcome in this thread. Your input in most other threads is meaningless and we don't want or need it here. This thread I designate to be the place for constructive feedback so that the PVP system can be fixed. I hope that people will participate here with suggestions and commentary that are helpful and that might actually be taken into account by the Devs rather than ignored as inane flaming ramblings. PVP has a problem. It isn't functioning "right." Let's figure out what that right should look like . Below are my observations, please read them thoroughly before you post and let's get a quality discussion going. Unless I am mistaken, I am under the notion that the Devs have stated that they want this to be a fun game that players can play their way. Create their own unique stories and play experiences and customize their gear and look. I also understand them to be against grinding and to have hoped to have created a more fluid experience. If these are true goals, then the state of PVP is even more broken than it would appear upon a cursory look. As an example, I find world PVP to be exhilarating and fun. Sometimes you turn a corner and get wrecked by a group of 4 opposing factioners that you didn't see. Sometimes you sneak up on someone or vice versa, sometimes you end up in a knock-down, drag-out 1v1 fight that borders on being epic. Win or lose, it is usually very fun and almost always ends up being a story re-told in guild chat or on vent/mumble. On the other hand, WZs wear on me fast. 3 maps, and gangs of enemies that way out gear me make what could/should be a fun head to head match into a zergfest of frustration. I believe this experience is where the problems lies, and where most of the complaints about gear and the expertise stat, etc. are stemming from. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe those are the symptoms and the root is elsewhere. Let me extrapolate. If I want to not get stomped in WZs I must get gear, to get gear I have only two choices...complete dailies/weeklies or grind WZ medals. As for dailies/weeklies, we get them for kills on Ilum or wins in WZs. This is where I think the problem lies. As is, to get the gear I need to make the event fun, I MUST participate in the event and get killed repeatedly, which is very much not fun. This brings me back to the games "mission statement" and a question...why isn't there another way? During beta merc commendations could be had by doing open world PVP, WZ commendations were for doing WZs. They were essentially equal in their purchasing power and could be traded in for one another at a slight penalty of 3 to 1. I don't know why these were taken out, but it presents a method of obtaining better PVP gear from a completely different play style (one that I enjoy more). That right there would create a separate path for accomplishing the same goal of acquiring PVP gear, but it also brings up the customization problem. As it stands for right now, everyone is striving to get the exact same looking gear. Where are the customization options? Why couldn't crafters produce something of equal stature (and of equal difficulty to produce)? So far, I've mostly asked questions centered on the theme of giving players the options to play how they want, but that doesn't address the issue most talked about directly. The disparity between a fully decked out battlemaster and your average joe new 50 rolling in to fight him. From my experience at this point, the odds of avg. joe winning this fight are 0%. I find this to be ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, a skilled player in this gear should kick butt, but a terrible PVPer in this gear should have the possibility of being defeated by a lesser geared and skilled PVPer. I'm lead to the question of how a rakata geared player would fare against a battlemaster geared player. Theoretically, the gear stats should be similar and the only real difference the expertise. In this instance I feel like the battle should be able to go either way with the expertise stat merely giving an edge to the BM. But how does it really stand? The answer to this posited question should tell us whether the problem is with the expertise stat or merely the gear disparity. As a quick sum, we all start as new 50s in whatever gear we arrived there in. That is point A. Point B has a character geared in a fashion that they can PVP effectively. There should be more than one road to get there. I've listed three possibilities including the only one that presently exists. Discuss...pose questions or solutions or relevant data (like the results of several bouts of players geared as above) anything that contributes to this conversation. Let's all put our heads together and sort out a way to fix this, because we all know that running around with a nerf bat in an already imbalanced system does no good.

No problem.

I make a ton of money selling stuff as an Artificer. Mostly because everyone thinks it's worthless so no one sells anything. Please continue to think that crafting is worthless so that I'm the only one selling stuff and making money.